Blink

The MTV Video Music Awards announced today that Britney Spears—many of whose most memorable moments have taken place on the high-profile stage of the VMAs—will be back to lend her formidable star power to this year’s telecast, scheduled for Sunday, Sept. 7.

Her appearance during the opening of the show continues a comeback for the pop star, whose personal struggles have earned more attention than her career moves in recent years. Her career appears to be back on track now, including VMA nominations this year for best female video, best pop video and video of the year for “Piece of Me.”

Ms. Spears’ notoriety over the years has typically been fueled by her provocative VMA appearances, which have included a memorable snake dance at the 2001 awards, a dominatrix outfit for her appearance with Michael Jackson in 2002 and a liplock with Madonna in 2003.

MTV cautions that this year’s Britney visit will not be a performance, but at the same time organizers are hinting that it could be another candidate for her pantheon of iconic moments. “This is an opening not to be missed,” the network chirps in its press release announcing the appearance. Two things are certain: (1) Britney’s appearance will get viewers to tune in, and (2) people will be talking about it afterward.

—Dennis R. Liff

If you’re looking for some far-out retro promos, ABC is the place to be.

The Alphabet network is reviving the look, the feel—even the sound—of its 1973 on-air brand in order to promote its upcoming time-travel cop show “Life on Mars.” First up: A 30-second promo that uses the “Mod Squad” theme and a vintage ABC meatball logo to get viewers in the mood for some retro crime-solving.

“The premise of the show is about a guy who wakes up and thinks he’s in 1973, and as Marla (Provencio) and I were brainstorming, we thought, ‘If we were to cut a promo in 1973, what would it look like?’,” said Mike Benson, who heads ABC marketing and promotion alongside Ms. Provencio.

Check out the promo after the cut.

Viewers of Bravo’s “Flipping Out” know that its star, stressed-out perfectionist Jeff Lewis, who buys, fixes up and resells houses for a living, is not an easy boss—in fact, the entire series is pretty much built around how outrageously trying he can be. During the season just ended, in a misguided attempt to express gratitude, he gave his long-suffering housekeeper, Zoila Chavez, a rather harshly rendered portrait of herself in a maid’s uniform—apparently the last thing in the world she wanted (and who can blame her?). But annoying though he may be, Mr. Lewis’ heart turns out to be in the right place: As the season ended, he decided to make it up to Ms. Chavez by having the network auction off the painting, promising her whatever sum it fetched. Unbelievably, the monstrosity last week pulled in a winning bid of more than $10,000 on Bravo.com—a handsome bonus for Ms. Chavez and a masterful bit of situation flipping for Mr. Lewis.

—Tom Gilbert

G4’s “Attack of the Show” tackles subjects such as video games, television and nerd culture. But during a recent set visit, it nearly took on the censors. “AOTS” films live daily at the Comcast Studios in Los Angeles, and while it may sound to viewers like there’s a rambunctious studio audience, it’s simply staffers and crew behind the scenes reacting to hosts Kevin Pereira and Olivia Munn. At this particular show, during a pre-taped segment entitled “In Your Pants” that addressed sexual issues, sex columnist Anna David gave Ms. Munn a curt answer. Ms. Munn, watching the tape in the studio, jokingly yelled out “That [c-word]!”—an epithet people tend to severely frown upon—even though an “AOTS” director had announced seconds beforehand that the mics were hot in order to add laughter and applause to the segment. Ms. Munn’s salty language, which was met with some red faces and embarrassed titters, luckily didn’t make it to air. Ms. Munn, however, remained nonchalant about the potential gaffe—not a surprise coming from the same person who, when sarcastically asked about the romantic tension between herself and Mr. Pereira, told a room full of stony-faced critics at the Television Critics Association in July: “Well, he already put it in my ass.” “AOTS” airs weekdays at 7 p.m. on G4.

—Andrew Krukowski

It was a classic “Today” show moment Wednesday morning (Wednesday night Beijing time), when Meredith Vieira and Ann Curry chose not to flee the fountains that cranked up not quite when expected.

SPLASH ZONE "Today" anchors Meredith Vieira and Ann Curry get soaked by fountains.

Instead, they frolicked like kids with a garden hose in the backyard and tried, more or less successfully, to get the always fastidious Matt Lauer and comic relief Al Roker to go with the water flow as well.

A couple of hours later, talking to a reporter back in the States, “Today” executive producer Jim Bell comfortably conceded, “We may have gotten a little carried away there, but fortunately we recovered in time, because we still had two hours of show left.”

That meant finishing the shift in wet hair and clothes for Ms. Vieira and Ms. Curry, who also kicked off her soggy shoes and worked barefoot.

“We’re going to take up a collection and head over to the Silk Market tomorrow and see if we can’t find her a similar pair,” Mr. Bell said. “You can tell we’re getting a little loopy with the hours and being on at night. We’re clearly having a lot of fun here. The Olympics have been just a magical event this time around for everybody.”

The icing on the magical cake: Preliminary data from Nielsen Media Research indicates “Today’s” Beijing sojourn has paid off with leads of 2.5 million viewers or more over ABC’s “Good Morning America.” That’s the NBC morning show’s biggest lead in at least eight years over its closest competitor.

Like the late entrepreneur Victor Kiam, who told TV commercial watchers in the ’80s that he liked Remington shavers so much he bought the company, Vincent Pastore liked “General Hospital” so much after taping a promo spot for the ABC Daytime drama that he wanted to join the cast&mdash:at least temporarily.

That was an offer ABC couldn’t refuse.

So Mr. Pastore will begin taping a one-week stint in September, playing the visiting father of mob man Max (Derk Cheetwood), a role that’s not much of a stretch given that Mr. Pastore’s mobbed-up “Sopranos” character, Big Pussy, was dispatched to sleep with the fishes after he turned government informant.

No other such guest stints have been reported with the remaining eight unlikely celebs who star in the promo campaign&mdash:ABC Daytime’s biggest in at least six years—which began rolling out last week on ABC and SoapNet and continues into September.

The spots—available for viewing below—are real attention-getters, whether it’s Mr. Pastore delivering talking points on family, loyalty, honor and vengeance or tattooed freestyle motocross “godfather” Mike Metzger talking about the high he gets from the action on “One Life to Live, “All My Children” and “GH.”

The CW’s just-launched on-air advertising campaign for “90210” spares no adjectives in selling the show.

In a promo subtlely called “Believe the Hype,” an announcer refers to the original “Beverly Hills, 90210” as a “show that defined a generation.” The new version? “The most anticipated premiere of the season!” (Actually, given the lack of buzz around this fall’s crop of freshman series, that claim might not be so far off.)

Given that The CW still hasn’t sent out screeners of the two-hour premiere, Blink watched the promo for you. So what can be gleaned from the 30-second ad? You’d be amazed.

—Two male characters get into a shoving match in a parking lot. Rich kids are such rebels!

—A young couple are seen in the beginning throes of passion.

—Annie (Shenae Grimes) whines about life in the Zip. “I’m in this new place where I don’t know anybody! Nobody acts like they do back home!” she says.

—Two characters dance as if they’re about to make love in this club (In this club. In this club.).

—There’s a football game. And Mean Girls walking the halls in a pack.

—Kelly sighting! “You know what these people in Beverly Hills are like,” says a still-sexy Jennie Garth.

—Two people make out in a car.

—And the character who’s not Brandon (Tristan Wilds) floats on a pool raft and says, “Everything’s going to be all right.”

The new “90210” premieres Sept. 2. Or, as The CW puts it, 9.02.

—Josef Adalian

MAGIC Criss’ reflection appears in the water at night with the help of a little backlighting.

A&E is promoting “Criss Angel Mindfreak’s” new season—in which he walks across Lake Mead—in a novel way on New York City and Los Angeles bus shelters. During the day, the ad merely shows Criss’ empty boots standing on the water. But come night, Criss’ reflection appears in the water with the help of a little backlighting. Woooo! Eerie! The ads were created by the West Hollywood-based design firm Art Machine.
—Tom Gilbert

“American Idol” executive producer and 19 Television President Nigel Lythgoe is taking a summer holiday from TV’s No. 1 show. Mr. Lythgoe has informed Fox that he’ll be absent during the filming of most, if not all, of the show’s audition rounds. Tryouts for season eight of “Idol” begin July 17 in San Francisco.

It seems Mr. Lythgoe’s other big show—“So You Think You Can Dance”—will be taking up a big chunk of his time during the summer. In addition to appearing as a judge on the U.S. version of the series, he’ll be in South Africa to help launch a local version of “Dance,” according to a 19 Television rep.

Auditions for the South African “Dance” are taking place this month, with the show due to premiere Aug. 9 on SABC-1. Further filling up Mr. Lythgoe’s dance card: The producer may contribute to the next season of the Australian version of “Dance,” which is scheduled to premiere in 2009.

Word of Mr. Lythgoe’s break has led some observers to suggest he might be preparing to scale back his involvement in the show more dramatically, or even leave it altogether. Insiders at Fox and producers 19 and FremantleMedia North America, however, said they’ve heard of no such plans and dismissed such talk as ill-informed gossip.

As for Mr. Lythgoe’s absence from the audition rounds, “Idol” insiders note that Executive Producer Ken Warwick—who, like Mr. Lythgoe, has been with the show from the start—will be on hand for the whole tryout process. What’s more, the audition episodes of “Idol” come together in editing, a process that happens in the fall and something with which Mr. Lythgoe is still scheduled to be involved.

—Josef Adalian and Chris Pursell

What has 1,000 legs, wears 3-inch spike heels and tiptoes at high speed through Central Park? The first of what may become an annual “High Heel-a-Thon” benefit on “Live With Regis and Kelly.” The event, which will be run, or teetered, live during Wednesday’s “Live,” will have 500 entrants—the maximum allowed under the permits the show obtained—from 40 states.

One of them will be co-host Kelly Ripa, who has been weighing which of her beloved trademark heels she could best—and most safely—run in without fear of ruining them. “You know how she falls in love with her shoes,” said “Live” Executive Producer Michael Gelman. Eleven of the competitors are men, although their ranks do not include Regis Philbin, who once proved on-air he could squeeze his feet into Ms. Ripa’s shoes. “I can convince Regis to do a lot of things, but that’s not happening,” said Mr. Gelman, who is taking an Olympics-like approach to the male entrants: They can run but they can’t hijack the $25,000 prize that goes to the first female entrant to finish the 150-yard competition.

The “High-Heel-a-Thon” will raise a minimum of $50,000 for the March of Dimes; online contributions will add to the donation. Although there will be a handful of TV cameras on the ground and the Goodyear blimp will provide aerial coverage—“just like any great sporting event,” said Mr. Gelman—this is no mere made-for-TV event.

CBS will add to its roster of acronym-filled police procedurals in July with “Flashpoint,” a drama that focuses on the exploits of cops in the fictional Canadian SRU (that’s “Strategic Response Unit”) purportedly inspired by Toronto's Emergency Task Force.

After running out of U.S. cities to give the “CSI” treatment and stocking prime time to brimming with doppelgangers “NCIS,” “Without a Trace,” “Cold Case,” and “Criminal Minds,” the network has turned to the Great White North for its latest iteration in a pathologically forensic lineup.

“Flashpoint,” premiering Friday, July 11, on CBS at 10 p.m., stars Ona Grauer and native Canadians Hugh Dillon (“Degrassi”) and Enrico Colantoni (“Just Shoot Me”) as Ontario’s answer to SWAT.

Clip below.

Have you ever channel-surfed aimlessly, hoping you’ll stumble onto some bitch fights?

Thanks to CBS’ new summer schedule, you can stop that aimless surfing and tune in to “Greatest American Dog.”

The competition series pits a dozen dog-and-owner teams against each other in a series of talent competitions for a chance at $250,000. Sneak peek clip, including dogs on skateboards, pooches in legwarmers and canine tattoos, after the jump.

It’s possible that you can get Regis Philbin to show up for a hosting gig just by sticking the word “million” in the title.

If “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?” and now “Million Dollar Password” are any indication, then maybe “My Cousin’s Junior High Graduation Party Million” or “Home Videos of My Million Cats” aren’t far behind.

On Sunday night, CBS brought back the first episode of the old “Password” game show for its fourth go-round (it was revived twice previously, in the ’70s and the ’80s) as “Million Dollar Password,” with a jacked-up jackpot and celebrity contestants.

Authentic Television Personalities(TM) Neal Patrick Harris and Rachael Ray appeared on the premiere. Still to come are Philbin favorite Rosie O’Donnell and “Brothers and Sisters” star Steven Weber.

Reege began developing the show last year, and, as usual, he can hardly contain his excitement, as seen in this behind-the-scenes clip, after the jump.

Are you a gambling man? Try placing a wager the next time you turn on NBC.

Last week, “Dateline,” and episodes from the “Law & Order” series composed 630 minutes of NBC’s 1,320 minutes of weekly prime-time broadcast.

That means a single random minute of NBC during the week of May 18 had a 48% chance of being either “Dateline” or something from “L&O.”

Ditch the coin flip next time. Just flip on NBC and if Jack McCoy or Ann Curry appears, somebody just won a bet.

—Andrew Krukowski